At least one individual has bravely stood up to the X-Men fan-boy brigade and declared that he does not like the trailer for the latest mutant adventure. X-Men: Apocalypse features Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse, the first mutant, who wakes up after a slumber of several thousand years and decides that he needs to create a new world order. The movie, which will be released in India in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on May 20, 2016, also stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence. The “offensive” portion is at 30 seconds.
Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism in Nevada, is not irritated with the stranglehold that Marvel comic book characters have over the adults who run Hollywood studios. Rather, Zed is pained that Apocalypse declares, “I have been called many things over many lifetimes — Ra, Krishna, Yahweh.”
Zed demanded that Singer delete the references to Krishna from the trailer and the final movie. “Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees and confused non-Hindus about Hinduism,” Zed thundered in a statement on his website. “Lord Krishna was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not for pushing movies for mercantile greed of filmmakers.” Zed also offered his professional services as a consultant on Hinduism to Hollywood studio executives who, he added, “should be sent for training in religious and cultural sensitivity so that they had an understanding of the feelings of audiences and communities when creating new products”.
Among the more studied, and secular, responses to the trailer was from Rolling Stone: “As Magneto, Mystique, Quicksilver, and the rest of the series’ familiar faces show up for battle, the skies darken, cities begin to implode, and the supervillain threatens to take over the world by controlling the X-Men. Former enemy-turned-comrade Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) concisely sums up the computer-generated carnage that comes next: ‘This is war.’”